In pictures: 1976, the year that punk changed everything

After journalist John Ingham first saw the Sex Pistols perform in 1975, he returned to his Sounds editor and described the gig. "As I spoke he smiled at me strangely," says Ingham. "Then he told me to interview them." When Ingham protested that it was premature for this unknown band, his editor replied, "Do you know how long you've been talking about them? Sixteen minutes!"

And so it was that Ingham claimed the first interview with the Pistols – the band that brought punk to London in the summer of 1976. For Ingham, whose new book of photographs Spirit Of 76: London Punk Eyewitness (£35, Anthology Editions) documents the emergence of punk across music, fashion and politics, the band revitalised the dried-up rock scene. "There wasn't anyone to get you excited for three minutes, let alone change your life," says Ingham, who became so involved that he once bailed Sid Vicious from jail. "They changed my life. Punk is an attitude – it questions authority – and that stuck." We asked Ingham to talk us through three of his photos...

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"This is my favourite picture from the book. Everyone is watching Johnny [Rotten] on stage. I like how the picture sums up the way everyone looked. This was an important gig because it was the last time the original group played. It was like watching rockets take off – over eight months I'd seen them grow from rudimentary to world-changing."

Mick Jones and Joe Strummer at The Royal College Of Art, A Night Of Treason, London, 5 November 1976

John Ingham

"That was the first time The Clash had a big stage, and they went crazy. There was a saying at the time, 'If you see The Clash, it will change your life.' And that was true of that night – they were spectacular. If they ran fast enough they would defy gravity; if they played fast enough they would be in another dimension."

Johnny Rotten at Notre Dame De France, London, 15 December 1976

John Ingham

"Look at those eyes – they're so intelligent. Johnny's not one of your typical council estate musicians whose life revolves around beer, football and playing guitar. He's got a lot of rage and he wants to tell you about it. Perhaps he's looking at a girl here. It was fascinating because, for all the rage and aggression, he got on very well with women. He was so soft and gentle with them."

This article was first published in the June 2017 issue of GQ magazine